The present invention pertains to systems, methods and readable medium providing remote monitoring services for people at risk for health conditions and communication of potential emergent health situations to third parties.
Health conditions including the onset of old age often present situations in which patients are unable to provide for their own care. These patients are considered “at risk” and as such often require supervision (monitoring) on a consistent and/or ongoing basis. At risk persons may be prone to certain emergent events such as stroke, coronary events, falls, etc. They may also be suffering from decreased mental capacity, frailty and/or the effects of aging.
The benefits of a patient being able to recuperate and/or age in familiar surroundings are well-documented. That is just one of the many advantages of remaining in the home including the financial advantage when compared to cost of an assisted living facility or other medical facility.
Today, remote monitoring systems are widely used in the home security industry as well as in patient monitoring applications. Remote Monitoring Systems typically consists of sensors and a central control device (i.e. PCB). When a sensor is tripped, a communication is initiated (i.e. via phone line, cell, etc.) to a central monitoring source (i.e. call center) that can provided automated response and/or live response to assess and address an emergent situation. Sensors for home security systems typically include motion detectors, door contacts, smoke detectors, flood detectors and/or video cameras. Patient monitoring systems may also include bed/chair pressure pads as well as personal emergency response systems (i.e. panic buttons).
To better control the cost of healthcare services, many providers and insurers are using electronic and automated technologies to minimize the amount of human resources required to deliver services. This is true of the remote monitoring services of at risk patients as well. Manual monitoring by human supervision is costly, subject to human error and often inconsistent across multiple caregivers.
Yet according to the AARP, 89% of seniors prefer to remain living independently in their homes as they age. As is widely noted, the baby boomers are entering into the ranks of senior citizens, and the need for solutions that will allow them to do so and remain in their homes safely is clear.
For patients seeking to remain living independently, self-monitoring is one option. Self-monitoring solutions require a patient to request assistance with a panic button or comparable one-touch emergency response technology. These systems have proven to be less than sufficient for various reasons. Non-compliance (i.e. failure to wear the device) is a primary cause. In addition, studies have shown that as much as 50% of patients who experience a fall or other medical condition while wearing the device are disoriented or otherwise incapacitated to the point that they do not utilize the device.
Another option to remain living independently is to utilize layperson and/or professional caregivers. If the patient has family members and/or friends they may act in the role of informal caregiver and monitor the patient. However, they are often unable to cover the full 24-hour period, and/or are obligated otherwise (i.e. a career commitment) and/or are not familiar with the needs of the task and/or otherwise unable to fulfill the monitoring duties. There also exist questions regarding continuity and consistency of the monitoring.
Professional caregivers may also provide care in conjunction with or independent of informal caregivers. Professional caregivers, both skilled (i.e. nurses) and non-skilled (household taskmasters), come at an expense. These services may be provided on a less than 24 hour basis. However, sufficient coverage by caregivers may not be possible either due to financial constraints and/or the preference of the patient and/or caregivers.
Additionally, the caregiver or a group of caregivers may not be able to provide a complete, accurate and consistent monitoring.
Remote collection of biometric data to assess and/or monitor the condition of at risk patient has emerged as a widely accepted alternative to keeping a patient in a hospital-stay observation.
Many early versions of remote biometric monitoring utilized data collection devices at the source that would record over a period of time and then be returned in order for the data to be extracted and analyzed.
Those systems evolved with the proliferation of communication technologies (i.e. internet, cellular, 3G, etc.) that no longer required physical access to the recording device in order to access the data.
Economies of scale and technology allowed more cost effective monitoring devices to be developed. The proliferation of internet, cellular and other digital communications continues to reduce the cost of monitoring at risk patients long term or even in perpetuity. These systems also evolved to more offer real-time data analysis and event monitoring.
Many biometric devices as are currently known in the art (e.g. weight scales, glucose meters, pulse/oximeters and blood pressure) are effective when in use but are unable to capture activities of daily living which can be indicative of an emergent condition.
Similar to biometric monitoring, remote security systems as are currently known in the art (motion detectors, door contacts, pressure pads, flood detectors, etc.) have found comparable economies of scale and have benefited from the proliferation of communications options.
Remote monitoring systems have the ability to capture lifestyle activity, and both systems are focused on protecting the well-being of the individual utilizing them. When combined, these systems are better able to determine a cause and effect relationship between lifestyle and a health-threatening event, and provide more comprehensive monitoring for the patient.
Thus, there is a need for a product that combines biometric data reporting and lifestyle data in order to provide a more complete approach to remote patient monitoring.
More particularly, there is a need for a system that allows a patient to continue to live independently while providing comprehensive (24 hour) monitoring, alerting caregivers to emergent situations, and providing analytical reporting to enable quality care of at risk patients.
This need is particularly relevant in the context of falls, as alluded to previously. According to the CDC in 2010, over 50% of falls among seniors were never reported to a health professional. This is attributed to several different factors including but not limited to the embarrassment of the senior, the senior being unaware of the implications and importance of reporting the fall, and concern that knowledge of the fall may lead relatives and/or health professionals to change the seniors living conditions.
However, previous falls are a strong indicator of the potential for future falls. In fact, fall scores (the number of previously recorded falls) are used as best practice as a quantifiable method for determining certificate of need for senior care.
Based on 2010 U.S. Census data, 1.5% of seniors (age 65 and older) will have a fall that requires hospitalization. With over 40 million seniors in 2010, the average cost of a fall requiring hospitalization was $17,500, making this an estimated $10 billion annual healthcare expenditure. The trend of an increasingly larger population over the age of 65 and rising costs in healthcare has led healthcare providers and health plans to seek technology solutions to help maintain a healthy population and control healthcare costs.
Therefore, there is further a need for a low cost and non-obtrusive technology solution for predicting falls before they occur to keep seniors healthier, allow those seniors to remain in their homes longer, and help both seniors and health plans avoid downstream costs.